Collaborate with us through applied industry research
Linking industry and academia to find innovative and enduring solutions for sustainability challenges across organisations.
Partner with us
Become a partner organisation
Through our Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability PhD/EngD course, our academics and selected student will collaborate closely with your organisation to design a research project aimed at both resolving your issues and building yours and our knowledge.
How it works
We will work with your organisation using a rigorous selection procedure to engage a high calibre student from our centre with the right knowledge and skills for your project. This student, called a doctoral practitioner, will be based on your premises for an initial period of two years. Around the end of the first year, a thorough review will take place. Towards the end of the second year, you will consider whether to bring the project to a conclusion, if appropriate, or maintain the momentum by extending the engagement for a further 12 or 18 months, thus allowing the opportunity for the doctoral practitioner, who may well have become an integral part of your company, to be retained.
Before joining you, the doctoral practitioner is fast-tracked through an intensive 12 week training course here at the University to ensure that they are ready to commence work from day one. This is supplemented with a bespoke programme of on-going training, tailored to your needs, the project and the doctoral practitioner. We will work with you to set clearly defined milestones throughout the project and closely monitor progress to ensure that the agreed objectives are reached.
How we've worked with industry
We took part in the first Drapers Sustainable Fashion Forum 2019. Our Dr Jaqi Lee spoke about how to move the fashion industry towards a more sustainable future. Hear from some of the most progressive fashion brands and retailers.
The PDS programme has allowed Hampshire Hospitals to use research to help address the challenge of sustainability within a healthcare setting.
As a valued member of the team, our doctoral practitioner has been able to fully embed within the organisation, allowing for a greater understanding of the organisational complexities as well as put forward considered initiatives that align with UK and global sustainable development goals.
Meet our doctoral practitioners
Our new students have been on an intensive programme of academic, personal development and transferable skills, training and preparing for their move to industry.
We thank WWF, Wates Group, Heathrow, Aviva and WRAP for their collaboration and look forward to the industry based sustainability research that will have enduring value for these companies.
Listen to our students talk about their experiences on the Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability programme.
From left to right - Harry Russell, Laurence Cummins, Pete Hemmings, Joanna Trewern and Sarah Gray.
2019’s conference theme was ‘how does my research contribute to enhance societal well-being delivered by my host organisation’. Each student presented a 3 minute thesis about their research project, with winners announced at the end of the conference.
Annual PDS conference
Our applied research programme, the Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability, has an annual conference showcasing all the research taking place with our industry partners.
Become a student
If you're interested in becoming a student with us as a doctoral practitioner then take a look at what we offer.
Studying with us
Hear from our students and see what support we offer.
Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability PhD/EngD
Pursue research studies while gaining research experience.
Annual conference
Researchers come together to showcase the research they are doing.
Advisory board
Peter Douben
Director and Founder, REACHWise
Biography
Peter Douben, PhD is an environment expert with more than 30 years’ experience in research, industry and consultancy services, focussing on the fate and effect of chemicals in the environment.
He is Director and Founder of REACHWise, a consultancy focussed on REACH, CLP and Biocides, supporting a global downstream end user of chemicals with ensuring the chemicals compliance with REACH in the client’s products and development of mitigation strategies. This also covers defining R&D programmes with the focus on chemical aspects of sustainability activities.
In the context of Brexit the company also provides Only Representative services for the UK. It continues to support companies in EU27/EEA but also from elsewhere in the world when they face regulatory issues for their chemicals to the UK and EU.
Before REACHWise, Peter he was Director REACH/Chemicals Policy in Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, during which he was responsible for the implementation of REACH, and as such he was involved in several REACH Implementation Projects (RIPs). He led the Project Management Groups on the guidance for information requirements on intrinsic properties of substances, and the one on carrying out the chemical safety assessment.
Prior to this he was Head of Environmental Protection in Unilever and served on many industry bodies in Europe and North America.
Chris France
Visiting Professor, Centre for Environment and Sustainability
Biography
Chris France is a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES). He founded the forerunner programme to the PDS back in 1993 and ran the EPSRC’s longest funded EngD programme. He has consulted for a number of universities in running such industry-facing research programmes (including, Imperial, UCL, Cambridge and Bristol) and was one of the EPSRC’s ‘EngD Advocates’ for many years. Chris succeeded Roland Clift as Director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability and later in his career founded Surrey’s Doctoral College which oversaw the admission, skills training and progress of a population of 1,000 doctoral students and represented the interests of nearly 500 early career researchers.
Chris believes that the essence of practitioner doctorates is to fulfil two objectives:
- Train ‘work ready’ graduates in the state of the art (both theory and practice) of their discipline (in this case sustainability)
- Undertake research that directly benefits the industrial sponsor whilst demonstrating excellent academic outcomes. The Surrey EngD diaspora since 1997 clearly shows this approach to be a success.
The repeat business from sponsors attests to the value that they derive from their participation. As an academic, Chris supported the CES submission to Research Excellence Frameworks on three occasions by citing papers written with EngD researchers and their industrial supervisors.
The value of tight cohorts, tailored training, high intellectual aspirations along with regular monitoring and tensioning, are key to maintaining the effectiveness of these programmes. This approach has given CES/Surrey an enviable niche. It requires active management (as much of supervisors as candidates) to avoid the otherwise inevitable degeneracy into a series of unlinked PhDs based more in the University.
Chris Fry
Managing Director, Accelar Limited
Biography
Chris is an established business leader drawing on experience spanning renewable energy, transport, the natural environment, water, regeneration, construction and government policy. In 2019 he co-founded strategy and sustainability consultancy Accelar Limited to help accelerate the clean growth transition.
He has a strong interest in eco-innovation and investment, for example as an advisor to the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB), as a member of the EIC’s Sustainable Smart Cities Taskforce and as a member of the Clean Growth Forum for the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership. Chris is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors. His previous roles include leadership positions with Ramboll UK, Temple Group, AEA Technology and the Transport Research Laboratory.
Adrian Greet
Director General, SAI Platform
Biography
As a member of the Executive Committee for over 7 years and most recently as President, Adrian led the work on SAI Platform’s Vision, Mission and Strategies. Now in the role of Director General, Adrian is driving these strategies and developing the organisation to reach a sustainable future for agriculture on a global scale.
During a career of over 33 years with Mars Incorporated, Adrian has led positive change across various areas and in many roles: most recently as one of the leading architects of the Mars Sustainable in a Generation Plan. He is an experienced public speaker and a highly experienced manager, who takes a value-driven approach to creating a culture, ethos and team that thrive on improvement and empowerment.
Adrian holds a BSc Honours degree from London University in Mathematics and Physics. He is a member of the board of governors for the Dairy Sustainability Framework, the Advisory board for the Quantis Geofootprint Tool, the Advisory Board for the Surrey University Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability and an Ambassador for the Positive Innovation Club.
Henry King
Director Sustainability Science and Technology, Unilever
Biography
Responsible for leading integration of life cycle thinking and sustainability science development within Unilever and supporting Unilever’s Compass ambitions and implementation across the business. Thirty years of experience working in industry and participated in various multi-stakeholder and expert working groups.
Experienced in environmental reporting and the development and implementation of impact assessment methods in industry and use of scientific data for communication and claims support. Current research areas include integration of planetary boundary thinking and science into decision-making, improving understanding of variability and uncertainty in life cycle assessment and product footprinting.